This weekend I was able to participate in the Ragnar Relay series in Arizona. I had an awesome team that was very supportive and a ton of fun to be with.
Background: Each Ragnar team consists of 12 people that run 3 legs each. Each 12 person team is broken up into two 6 people per car teams - runners 1-6 in car 1, runners 7-12 in car 2. The relay is 204 miles winding through Arizona from Prescott to Tempe.
I was in the 2nd car so our first run didn't begin until the afternoon. I was the 9th runner (3rd runner in our car) so my run started at about 2:30 in the afternoon on the 26th. It was a VERY challenging run, mostly up hill, I feel that I was vastly unprepared for it. That being said, I made decent time and finished my 6.7 mile run (ok, run with a lot of fast walking) in 1 hour and 17 minutes. Our team finished our runs at about 7:30pm and went to dinner and a friends house to rest. We got up at midnight and drove to the next exchange to start our 2nd run. Kim (amazing woman on my team) was the 7th runner (our 1st runner) and was pumped up and ready to go on her 8 mile run (at 2am), unfortunately there was a very bad accident and a young runner on another team was struck by a car on the highway. He is currently in critical condition. They held all runners for about 2 hours and then told us to drive to the next major exchange point for a mandatory meeting. Which means our car skipped our 2nd runs. There we still did not have a lot of information but several rumors that a person had been hit and killed and possibly 2. We made an emotional decision to not continue the ragner. We then drove 3 of our team home and I went to Kim's house to rest up and wait for Darrin to pick me up.
(me finishing up my 1st run - racing a little hehehe)After a little nap we needed to go get my car charger out of Dana's (another amazing woman) car. On the way Kim and I joked a little that we should just go run the last 3 legs of the ragnar and finish it out. We then told Dana and she was SO excited that we actually did it. We changed our clothes, drove an hour and a half to the ragnar and each of us (Dana, Kim and I) ran. I ran a 3.5 mile leg and felt much better about it, made good time, no hills and I ran - not walked :) Then for the very last mile (during Kim's run) Dana and I joined her and we finished it together.
(above, me getting the relay bracelet from Dana on our last 3 legs- below finishing my leg with a sprint)
What an amazing experience. I am very grateful to have been a part of it. I think the 3 of us at least felt disappointed to not be able to finish it out, and even running those last 3 legs made us feel a lot better about it.
I am so very thankful to my wonderful husband for supporting me, driving me to Arizona and taking care of my wild children while I ran and participated.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the young man, his family and team. I hope he recovers quickly.
